Marlene McKinnon/Backstory
Marlene Clara McKinnon was born November 19th, 1959 into the wizarding McKinnon family. As a child, she was taken care of very well by her parents - a little too well. Both Marlene and her brother were constantly looked after and given everything they wanted... except anything considered even remotely dangerous. They had to think of ways to escape the constant supervision, and grew very close during that time, getting along very well most of the time. It was then that she became fiercely protective of the boy, who was two years younger than her. They often spent time playing with other children in their neighborhood. There were a few of them, but only one, James Potter, became a real friend to Marlene. When the time came for her (and James) to attend Hogwarts, she was sorted into Gryffindor house, which, to be honest, she expected. However, Marlene's top priority at school were the people. She was thrilled at all the opportunities to socialize and make friends. She didn't want to waste any of them in this great new environment. And so, for the next two years, instead of focusing mainly on classes, as many others in her year did, she took the time to make connections, knowing it would pay off. And it did, with Marlene becoming close friends with four other girls during the course of her education: Alice Fortescue, Mary MacDonald, Lily Evans and Dorcas Meadowes. The friendships she made - especially with the girls, but to some extent also with James - and her brother really helped her when she went through a very hard time at the age of fourteen. One of her cousins had disappeared without a trace. The McKinnons searched for him everywhere, with the help of volunteers all over the country, but with no luck. The boy was assumed to have died and rarely speaken of again. This left a huge impact on Marlene, who came to realize that this was the world she was going to live in - random, full of disappearances and death that she couldn't do anything about. As if the threat of war looming over the young witches and wizards' heads wasn't enough, there was, as always in one's teens, lots of schoolwork. After a somewhat rocky start, with hard work and help from the girls, Marlene managed to get her grades up to a rather good level. She was especially interested in magizoology, although Transfiguration was also one of her favourite subjects. When it was time to choose a career path, she was sure she wanted to study magical creatures, and finally decided on dragons - dangerous, but beautiful. After graduation, she had plans to start her career with research in Australia, but life, as always turned out differently. The Order of the Phoenix came into existence, and her friends were joining it one by one. Never one to miss out on the action, or pass up a chance to do something about the horrible situation the wizarding world was in, she became a member as well, determined to do all she could. Whatever it takes.